Behave when you are at nation’s checkpoints, motorcyclists warned

GELANG PATAH: There seems to be a Jekyll and Hyde lurking inside some Malaysian motorists coming in from Singapore.

When they are on the roads in Singapore, they seem well-behaved and patient.

But Hyde apparently takes over the wheel the minute they are back on Malaysian soil.

“In Singapore, they have no problem waiting for hours in a long queue, which can stretch for over 3km.

“Some motorcyclists will even turn off their engines,” said Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali.

“However, when they are on the Malaysia side, they will honk endlessly.

“Some will even hurl abuse at my officers,” he said.

Mustafar warned motorcyclists to behave themselves at the two checkpoints here.

There was a huge congestion at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex on Monday due to eight faulty motorcycle gantries at the MBIKE counters.

MBIKE, which is a Secured Automated Clearance System that was introduced last November, was to reduce motorcycle lane congestion by 50% at the Malaysia-Singapore entry points.

The congestion led to 36 motorcyclists being detained.

Apparently, some damaged gantries, ramming into the automated border control system for motorcycles.

Mustafar urged motorcyclists to be patient when crossing the border via the CIQ in Johor Baru and the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex (KSAB) building near the SecondLink here as the MBIKE system was still new.

“Not many users are familiar with it,” he said.

He said one motorcyclist even hit an Immigration officer with his machine while trying to escape detention.

The motorcyclists, he said, were detained after they failed to show their passports at the counters.

“Many drove through without even stopping.

“After visiting both the CIQ and KSAB, I believe there should be some improvement to the system to speed up the process,” Mustafar told reporters after conducting a visit to both CIQ and KSAB here yesterday.

Mustafar said the Immigration Department would speak to the vendor responsible for the MBIKE system, adding that more than 90,000 motorcyclists used the Causeway and Second-Link on a daily basis.

There are currently 100 motorcycle counters at the CIQ and 50 at the KSAB.